Since China’s flood season began in July, extreme rainfall has caused more than 16bn yuan ($2bn) in “road damage” across more than two-thirds of the nation’s “administrative divisions”, Reuters says, citing the country’s transport ministry. The newswire adds that “climate risks are placing additional pressure on the ailing economy’s public purse”, with the Chinese government already allocating around 6bn yuan ($800m) in “funding for disaster relief” since April. In July alone, “flooding, landslides, earthquakes and drought” led to “direct economic losses” worth 52bn yuan ($7bn).

MORE ON CHINA

• China exported more than 15 gigawatts (GW) in solar capacity to African countries over the past 12 months, Bloomberg reports, in a “pivotal moment” for the continent. The New York Times and Climate Home News also covers the new Ember data.
• Xinhua quotes an MEE official outlining “focus areas” for developing China’s carbon markets, including “expanding” sector coverage, limiting new regional trading markets and stimulating greater trading activity.
• People’s Daily carries an article in its print edition under the byline He Yin – indicating the views of party leadership on foreign policy – saying China is willing to work with all countries to create a “cleaner and greener future for humanity”.
• A Global Times “GT Voice” article argues that efforts to decouple critical minerals supply chains, which are important for “clean energy”, from China are “unlikely to succeed”.
• Climate Home News: “Nepal and China agree to cooperate on glacial lake flooding, as warming hikes threat.”
• Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member states have facilitated “fruitful cooperation…in fields such as food and energy security”, Xinhua says.

Energy bills will rise by 2% for millions of UK households in October under the latest cap announced by the regulator Ofgem, reports BBC News. The increase, which is slightly more than analysis had forecast, will see the typical house energy bill rise to £1,755 a year, up £35 a year on the current cap, it notes. The Guardian adds that the cap will go up despite a 2% fall in wholesale energy prices over the past three months, in part to cover the rising cost of the government’s energy policies. It reports that about £15 of the £35 increase will fund the expansion of the warm home discount scheme, helping to provide an extra 2.7m households with a £150 reduction in their bills as the country heads for colder weather. Reuters reports that while the increase in the cap is due to network and policy costs, and “domestic energy prices have fallen since their peak in 2023, they remain around 50% higher than in the summer of 2021, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent gas prices soaring and sparked an energy crisis in Europe”. The Times reports that part of the increase is due to the rising cost of “paying wind farms to switch themselves off”. It adds that increases to “balancing costs”, including the need to pay wind farms in remote regions to switch off during periods of high generation as the networks cannot transport it to where it is needed, is adding £15 to the increase. [While balancing costs have increased in recent years, there is a strong correlation between these and gas prices, the latter of which is, ultimately, the biggest driver of high energy prices in the UK, as explained by Carbon Brief earlier this year.] The story is also covered by the Sun, i newspaper, Daily Mail and others.

MORE ON UK

• The Guardian covers new figures from the Institute for Public Policy Research suggesting the UK’s richest will produce 13 times as many emissions from transport as the poorest by 2035.
• Reuters reports that changes to the UK’s renewable energy subsidy scheme could “put offshore wind back on track”.
• The Guardian notes that Octopus Energy founder Greg Jackson has been appointed as a UK government adviser.
• The Daily Telegraph reports that energy company Drax is under investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority due to claims of “greenwashing” related to its biomass sourcing. 
• Sky News covers which models of electric vehicle are now eligible for the £3,750 government discount.

At least 34 people have been killed as heavy rainfall across India and Pakistan continues to cause flash floods and landslides in Indian-controlled Kashmir, reports the Associated Press (AP). The rain has displaced 210,000 people in Pakistan, as well as submerged important landmarks such as the shrine of the founder of the Sikh religion, it adds. Heavy rains and flash floods in the Himalayan region have already killed nearly 100 people in August, with rain expected to continue across this week, the article states. AP adds: “Scientists say climate change is fueling heavier monsoon rains in South Asia, raising fears of a repeat of a 2022 weather disaster that struck a third of Pakistan and killed 1,739 people.” The article says that next year’s monsoon could be 22% “more intense” due to climate change. Reuters reports that in the “deadliest single disaster” of the August monsoon rains, 33 people were killed on a pilgrimage route in India’s federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday. Separately, Reuters covers Typhoon Kajiki and the flooding it has triggered in Vietnam and Thailand. The article notes that the typhoon has now killed eight people and the Vietnamese government has warned of more flash floods and mudslides to come. 

The Net-Zero Banking Alliance has paused its activities “after losing top European and Wall Street members amid Donald Trump’s ongoing crusade against climate change”, reports the Financial Times. The article notes that HSBC, Barclays and UBS have all recently left the alliance, following the departure of members including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. The Times reports that the Net-Zero Banking Alliance will suspend activities while its remaining signatories decide on a proposal to change from a membership-based structure to an organisation that provides guidance for banks as a “framework initiative”. Reuters adds that the alliance, which was set up in 2021 ahead of the UN climate summit in Glasgow, currently includes membership obligations, such as committing to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, setting interim emissions reduction targets by 2030 and annual progress reports. Bloomberg notes: “Since the unveiling of the Paris Agreement at the end of 2015, banks globally have provided almost $6.4tn of bonds and loans to oil, gas and coal companies, compared with about $4.3tn for green projects.” The story is also covered by Axios, the Wall Street Journal, BusinessGreen, Daily Telegraph and others. Relatedly, the Financial Times’ Moral Money newsletter argues that “European green investment stands to gain at the US’s expense”, as a “crackdown” on the wind sector in the US hampers renewable energy investment in the country. 

The wildfires across Greece, Turkey and Cyprus this summer were “22% more intense and 10 times more likely due to climate change”, reports Bloomberg. New research from World Weather Attribution finds that the “extremely hot, dry and windy conditions that drove the chaotic spread of fires across the eastern Mediterranean would only occur once every century without man-made climate change”, the article adds. The Associated Press notes that the fires killed 20 people, made 80,000 people evacuate their homes and burned more than a million hectares, making 2025 “Europe’s worst recorded year of wildfires”. It notes that “climate change that has driven scorching temperatures and dwindling rainfall made massive wildfires in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus this summer burn much more fiercely”. BBC News reports that the million hectares of land burnt – the equivalent to about half the land area of Wales – makes it the worst wildfire season since records began in 2006. It adds that roughly 1% of the entire Iberian Peninsula was “scorched” by the wildfires.

The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has reportedly suspended a number of staff following criticism of US president Donald Trump’s cuts and alleged interference at the agency, reports BBC News. The staff are among those who recently signed an open letter warning that another “national catastrophe” akin to Hurricane Katrina was possible following the administration’s recent actions, the article notes. The Guardian quotes Jennifer Forester, a Fema analyst who was placed on leave, who tells the outlet: “Dismantling the agency piecemeal while threatening to do so entirely will render such a tragedy, once again, inevitable.” It adds that among those who could potentially face retaliation for the letter are those who were directly responsible for relief efforts in Kerr county, Texas, following the deadly floods last month. Reuters reports that the development is “likely to fuel concerns that US president Donald Trump’s administration does not tolerate dissent”. It notes that, in July, the Environmental Protection Agency placed 139 employees on administrative leave after they signed a letter criticising Trump’s policies.

Writing in the Daily Mirror, UK energy secretary Ed Miliband argues that what is keeping energy bills high is elevated wholesale gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, not net-zero policies, following the news that the energy price cap will increase in October. Gas prices are 75% higher than they were before the invasion, he continues, adding: “That is the fossil fuel penalty being paid by families, businesses and our economy. The simple fact is that the only way to get energy bills down for good is to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and those markets controlled by petrostates and dictators.” Miliband discusses the extension of the warm homes discount and the development of the nationalised energy company Great British Energy. He concludes that: “Every day we will fight for you, making the decisions to help working people. On energy bills and energy security, we are getting on with the job, and we will not stop until we have achieved our mission.”

There is a wave of comment pieces and editorials across the UK’s right-leaning newspapers following the announcement of the energy cap increase. An editorial in the Times discusses the “lack of modernised grid” and how it is creating “windfarm waste”. There is an editorial in the climate-sceptic Sun and a separate comment article by climate-sceptic commentator Ross Clark, both attacking Ed Miliband specifically. The climate-sceptic Daily Mail carries an editorial (not yet online) which concludes: “[Miliband] is driven by ideology, not pragmatism, in defiance of energy and economic experts who consider net-zero a ruinous fantasy. Still, this eco-zealot can take comfort that more individuals might achieve net-zero this year. With prices surging, some won’t be able to afford to use any energy at all.” Climate-sceptic columnist Esther Krakue argues in the Daily Express that the increase should be a “fatal blow” to the government’s net-zero plans. An editorial in the same newspaper (not yet online) says: “The government is doubling down on the green zealotry that has contributed to the problem…It is time for Labour to ditch its obsession with green targets and make cutting energy bills a top priority.” The Daily Telegraph carries two comment pieces on the increase, with former MP Tom Harris dubbing net-zero a “delusion” and assistant editor at ConservativeHome William Atkinson calling it a “war on pensioners”. 

MORE IN COMMENT:

• Financial Times US energy editor Jamie Smyth argues that “surging US electricity prices put Trump pledge in jeopardy”. 
• In the New York Times, opinion writer David Wallace-Wells writes that the US and China have “placed their wagers” with regard to AI and the energy transition, and now “we wait”. 
• A Lex comment piece in the Financial Times discusses the opportunity that rebuilding Ukraine presents for European companies, including how the country could “prove fertile ground for renewable energy companies”. 

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Molly Lempriere, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Anika Patel. It was edited by Leo Hickman.

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